D.K. Duncan AS A healthy discussion on education takes pride of place and as the thorny issue of Access as it relates to Free Secondary Education continues to prick the conscience of some and excite the electoral appetite of others it might be useful to reflect on the "Good Old Days".
James (Jimmy) Carnegie, in a most informative document "Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics, 1918-1938" published in 1973, reminds us that one year prior to the first General Elections under Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 of the following:
"the Island had no university nor radio stations. There were few Secondary Schools and these were usually staffed by foreign teachers, and only a very few, including some scholarship holders benefited from these"
By the year 2001, there were some 800 Primary, All Age and Junior High Schools, 134 Secondary High Schools, 14 Technical High Schools, 3 Vocational Colleges, 5 Community Colleges, 6 Teachers' Colleges and 6 Tertiary Institutions, including three Universities. In 1943 3 per cent of the population received secondary education.
From 1944 to 1957 less than thirty students from primary (elementary) schools had access to the traditional High Schools except by way of the Government's Parish Scholarship scheme in the "Good Old Days".
After 1957, this number was increased significantly to over 1,000. Referred to as "free places" these measures were introduced by the then Minister of Education Florizel Glasspole in the last People's National Party's Admi-nistration led by Chief Minister and later Premier, Norman Manley (1955-1962).
Edwin Allen, the next Minister of Education under the last JLP Administration (1962-1967) to be led by Jamaica's first Chief Minister and first Prime Minister after Independence, Alexander Bustamante, introduced the 70-30 admission ratio for "free places" in favour of the primary school students. This was based on limited Access to the same number of students. We were about to leave the pre-Independence "Good Old Days" behind.
By May, 1973, full access was granted to Secondary and Tertiary Education regardless of the ability to pay. This immediately doubled the number of beneficiaries to over 4,000 students at the Secondary level.
This full access remained in force until the 1990s. Under the PNP administration of P.J. Patterson, the present Prime Minister, with Burchell Whiteman as his Minister of Education full free access was sacrificed on the altar of cost-sharing. There was relatively little public protest.
Years earlier, in February, 1986, the then Minister of Education, Mavis Gilmour, under the then Prime Minister and now Leader of the Opposition, Edward Seaga, had supervised the introduction of a cess on fees for education at the tertiary level specifically the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST) for Jamaican students. There was a howl of protests. Opposition Leader Michael Manley promised to remove it if elected. He was elected. He did not remove it.
Quality aside, access has always been a thorny issue for the majority of Jamaicans throughout the country's entire history. This includes the period of over 300 years of continuous British rule (1655-1962) the "halcyon days" of the "Good Old Days".
The British introduced measures for primary (elementary) education after the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865. A "Schools Commission for Secondary Education" was established in 1879. Elementary education became free in 1892.
Carnegie reports that in 1943 the school-leaving age for elementary school was 14 in towns and 12 in rural districts.
By the time I left Elementary School in 1952 to take up a Parish Scholarship at Jamaica College in 1953 the school-leaving age was fifteen and the entry age was seven. In 1974, two more years were added to facilitate post-primary education.
In the "Good Old Days" of slavery, it is generally accepted that only free coloureds or mulattoes could even think of education, much less secondary education. For the majority (slaves/blacks) access was denied by the system Slavery. Slaves had no rights.
Clinton Black, that historian and archivist par excellence, records that before slavery was abolished, a number of secondary schools were started as charity institutions "those that survived did so as fee-paying grammar schools beyond the reach of poor children, except with Government assistance".
Black also reminds us that it was not until 1760 that the Moravians were allowed to instruct the slaves. They were allowed to do so then only in Christianity but were forbidden to educate them otherwise.
The founding of schools for blacks/slaves had to wait until after Emancipation. By 1883 only 22,000 out of 250,000 blacks could write.
Needless to say, the sons and daughters of the plantation owners (in the main) were sent home to 'mother' (the mother country Britain) for their formal education.
The expansion of access to educational opportunities began in 1957 with the award of free places and grant in-aid places at secondary level. This revolution was consolidated in 1973 when free tuition at secondary and tertiary institutions was introduced.
The new, proud, informative, assertive Jamaican citizen of the 21st century may want to second the following resolution:
Whereas in 1957 elements of the privileged classes objected to their children sitting in the same classrooms with the majority of Jamaicans and Whereas in 1973 many of those voices objected to Full Access on the basis of affordability by the state And Whereas in 1986 a cess was put on tertiary education reducing access And Whereas in 1990's cost-sharing was introduced at the secondary level - severely limiting full access
Be it resolved that for the September/October 2002 General Elections the overwhelming majority of Jamaicans acknowledge: Education as a Right - not a Privilege Free basic, primary and secondary education as a manifestation of that right Access to Tertiary Education as a necessary pre-condition for Equity and Economic prosperity For the first time at last a resolve to unite around Universal Access to quality education based on some well known themes "Better Must Come" and "Deliverance" - from the bad old days. One Love, One heart. Former PNP General Secretary and Government Minister in the PNP administration of the 1970's, Dr. Duncan - a dental surgeon, recently established "The D.K. Duncan Political Institute". Email: dktruth@hotmail.com
